Life as a teenager isn't easy, especially if your parents die early. Peter (Andrew Garfield) grows up with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and his Aunt May (Sally Field). As a 17-year-old, he's having trouble adjusting, but he also has a fully developed sense of justice. This awakens interest in Gwen (Emma Stone), but Peter still has a lot to learn about love. Then he finds documents from his father that lead him to Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) and Oscorp Industries, where Connors is working on cross-pollinating different species. Peter investigates and is bitten by a spider with superhuman powers. Connors experiments on himself, which results in his own transformation.

There's nothing new in The Amazing Spider-Man, and much of what made the first movies so good is stifled in this one. Peter Parker the nice boy next door is turned into a melancholy outsider, for example. Otherwise the reboot retains the classic story, albeit somewhat slimmed down and more slowly paced. The focus here is on high school romance, making it clear the filmmakers are targeting a completely different audience. Which is a shame, because the Jekyll-and-Hyde story would have had great potential.